At the Medlock Ames tasting room with Angry Christina mustard

I spent some time at the Medlock Ames winery tasting room (which includes the Alexander Valley Bar) photographing and enjoy a pickling seminar given by my friend Eric, founder of Angry Christina.

 

Here are some photos from the event.

produce for the picnic.  Watermelons, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and carrots.

 

 

 

 

 

bread in a basket.  The lighting in the bar was wonderful.

 

 

 

 

Crocks and jars with pickles and pickled carrots.  The stoneware crocks have a little “moat” around the rim that is designed to seal the pickling contents from outside air when filled with water.

 

 

 

 

Ringo watches carefully

 

 

 

 

Colorful potatoes

 

 

 

 

angry christina mustard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Alexander Valley Bar has some pretty sweet decorations.

 

 

 

 

There’s a large garden outside of the Medlock Ames tasting room and a few sunflower fields just in front of the grape vines.

 

 

 

 

Pears ready to be sliced for salad.

 

 

 

 

Heirloom tomatoes for the salad

 

 

 

 

Pear slicing

 

 

 

 

Onion slicing

 

 

 

 

The dried and crushed sumac berries added a lemony taste to the onions

 

 

 

 

The picnic table outside had a custom trough that could be filled with ice to keep the wine cool.  The ice trough was very well done and was perfect for the day.

 

 

 

 

Potatoes, tossed in salt, angry christina mustard, and olive oil and then roasted in the wood oven.

 

 

 

 

Adding a little more seasoning to the potatoes

 

 

 

 

Pickling demonstration

 

 

 

 

Lunch is served

 

 

 

 

waiting for table scraps…

 

 

 

 

 

Waterbar Oysterfest 2011

Some photos from the sold-out Waterbar Oysterfest 2011

I believe these are fried oyster sliders from Farallon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House-made chinese sausage, oyster on a lettuce leaf by Prospect

 

 

 

 

a white fixie/single speed with a fatted calf sticker was parked outside

 

 

 

Epic roasthouse served a cornmeal-fried oyster with a slice of beef on a chive-buttermilk biscuit topped with.. I don’t remember.  It was delicious though – my favorite bite of food there.

 

 

 

 

the woman in the black shirt was the oyster eating contest winner – 73 in 3 minutes!

 

 

 

 

and there was a feast afterwards – corn, potatoes, shrimp, mussels and clams with half a lobster

 

 

 

 

holy crap this was so good.  trying to remember its contents: a crumby crust with an espresso-chocolate mousse topped with a layer of caramel mousse topped with vanilla whipped cream, caramel corn, and chocolate

 

 

 

 

view of the bay bridge from waterbar

 

 

 

 

 

Eating About Beer Winter 2011 Dinner Part 1

The 2011 Winter Eating About Beer dinner was held at the Commonwealth Cafe and Public House in Oakland this past Sunday.  Here are the photos that I took of the event.

 

Terrariums in the window.  It was a rainy sunday but the lighting in commonwealth was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing endives for the first course

 

 

 

 

Kitchen knives

 

 

 

 

On the wall

 

 

 

 

Frying pheasant skin

 

 

 

 

Those glasses need an anti-reflective coating

 

 

 

 

Potatoes being cut prior to frying

 

 

 

 

Crispy pheasant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commonwealth’s coffee condiment counter

 

 

 

 

Discussing pre-dinner activities

 

 

 

 

The Eating About Beer crew in the kitchen

 

 

 

 

Awesome flower arrangements.

 

 

 

 

game face.

 

 

 

 

Chives

 

 

 

 

Frying the “belgin-inspired crispy potatoes”

 

 

 

 

Scallions to later go with cheese and sausage

 

 

 

 

Commonwealth’s storefront, telegraph side.

 

 

 

 

The menu

 

 

 

 

The first guests start checking in

 

 

 

 

Plating the endives

 

 

 

 

seated, awaiting the first course

 

 

 

 

handling the marinated daikon

 

 

 

 

the plating continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First course: Endive with roasted pheasant and hazelnuts – paired with a scottish heavy 70 shilling ale

 

 

 

 

The chefs discuss the first course

 

 

 

 

toast

 

 

 

 

Pouring homemade sake

 

 

 

 

plating of the onigiri

 

 

 

 

second course: a deconstructed sake bomb with umeboshi onigiri and marinated daikon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guatemalan longaniza sausages, cooking

 

 

 

 

describing the second course

 

more photos to come.  If you need more of a fix, check out the last eating about beer dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

dinner at southie

.. was good.  finished it off with a bacon-infused chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream,  marshmallow and shortbready cookies.  the pudding wasn’t very bacony but it was still a great dessert.

 

Southie – 6311 College Ave, Oakland CA

 

 

 

sidenote:  GF1 @ ISO1600 is pretty noisy!

 

Amsterdam: Day 2

Every trip I take somehow ends up becoming a bike and coffee (and sometimes beer) tour.  We did some preliminary research on chowhound and coffeegeek for the coffee and beer and found a place for bike rentals.  Also handy was this interview of Stumptown owner Duane Sorensen by Oliver Strand of the New York Times It’s been a couple of months since our trip so my memory is a bit hazy but I’ll try to piece things back together with the help of these photos and the internets.

Die Koffie Salon Storefront

Coffee was my first priority.  We walked from our hotel to de koffie salon (Utrechtsestraat 130) based on recommendations from one of the above threads.  Patisserie Kuyt is across the street and these two were probably taking pictures of the storefront.  I did the same later, of course.

Impressive looking lever machine at Die Koffie Salon.

not as impressive-looking espresso from Die Koffie Salon

The espresso from Die Koffie Salon was pretty disappointing.  Light-bodied and not so good.  Drinkable though.  I don’t remember much else about it.  We moved on to across the street.

Patisserie Kuyt storefront

Patisserie Kuyt was a treat.  We ended up getting a variety of sweets, including the famed Appeltaart.

Bike rentals were from Dam Bike (New 26).  Cheap bike rentals, pretty crappy bikes.  But most bikes in Amsterdam were crappy.  We had some brake and wheel-truing problems, but hey, we didn’t expect much.  Another factor in choosing this bike rental place: we didn’t have to ride the super touristy orange bikes.  We were still touristy of course.

Nespresso storefront

I stopped in here to see if there were any Nestle-fueled single serve espresso innovations.  I didn’t see any, but I did see some (apparently top secret) designer Nespresso machines.  There were patterns screen printed on some of the plastic panels.  They kicked me out of the store for taking photos.  First time for a coffee shop – in the past it’s usually been for taking pictures in churches.

Lots of orange going on – we were nearing the quarterfinals of the the world cup.

women walking along albert cuypmarkt

After hanging out for a bit in Vondelpark, our next stop was Stumptown Amsterdam.  The market was super crowded and the actual store front was obscured by tents.  Lots of semi-crappy stuff but it was all interesting nonetheless.

an overexposed view of stumptown amsterdam

stumptown amsterdam: cupping station

Stumptown Amsterdam had a similar feel to other Stumptown locations but also had a more boutique-y feel to it.  The barista was a bay area guy (if I remember correctly) and it sounded like a pretty sweet gig to be working at that pop-up coffee spot with an apartment paid for by the Stumptown folks.

stumptown espresso

The espresso was predictably good, of course.

Bazar

Dinner was at Bazar (Albert Cuypstraat 182).  We got some sort of kebab platter and though I was stuffed afterwards, I was intrigued by their mint syrup + ice cream + fruit dessert combination.

dessert at Bazar.

Canteloupe, honeydew, apple, grape, ice cream, whipped cream, mint syrup, pineapple, and strawberry.  The mint syrup was too sweet for my tastes but it was an interesting combination made a bit refreshing by the mint.

Albert Cuypstraat, post market

The market had shut down and the cleaning crews were tidying the street as we walked out of Bazar.

Albert Cuypstraat, post market

biercafe gollem

A recommended beer place, Cafe Gollem (Raamsteeg 4),  was nearby, so we sat down and had a beer.  Good selection with a very low-key vibe.  The only thing that sucked was a woman sat down next to us and started smoking.  The breeze was blowing all of her smoke right at my face.  She must have had about 3 cigarettes while we had about 2 beers.

biercafe gollem – at the bar

We left Cafe Gollem to return our bikes to Dam Bike and then walked home.

dam square at night

kind of a sweet bike design.

It doesn’t look very practical but it’s kind of cool how the rack is integrated and how there’s tons of standover clearance.  The decal says “Nationale Postcode Loterij”  Not sure why they’ve branded a bike with their decals or who the manufacturer is though.

the intercontinental amstel amsterdam hotel

The last shot of the night was of the fancy-looking InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam Hotel (Amstel Hotel).  FIVE STARS PLUS!

Eat Real Fest 2010 Part 3 – Pig Butchery Competition

This is part 3 of my photos from Eat Real Festival 2010. For part 1, click here, for part 2, click here.


Dave the butcher and Dan the butcher from Jim N Nick’s BBQ faced off in the pig butchery competition on the afternoon of Sunday the 29th of August.




one of the judges holds up a loin:

Anya Fernald does the play by play:

more dave the butcher:

Dave the butcher liked this one:


One of the judges.  Judging:

These guys were really getting into it:

A few more shots of the pig butchery crowd:

Taste of Temescal 2010

This year’s Taste of Temescal was Tuesday, September 14th.  For $30 (proceeds went to the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, Good Cents for Oakland, Lion’s Center for the Blind, Emerson Elementary School, Claremont Middle School and the Oakland Tech PTO) you got about 20 tastings of enough tasty food to get painfully full – if you chose to eat it all yourself.  (Note to self:  split the ticket next year)

Los Malcriados, playing in front of Aunt Mary’s Cafe:

“Texas Caviar” (black-eyed peas), salpicon (shredded beef? pork?), and a sweet potato bar from Aunt Mary’s Cafe:

Remedy, serving scones, some of Ritual‘s La Folie drip coffee, and artful barista poses:

Chioke from The Dime

DJ Crimson and The Dime in front of Kasper’s Hot Dogs on 46th:

Raciel from Tara’s Organic Ice Cream serving a variety of flavors – vanilla bean, chocolate, lemon verbena, turkish coffee, blueberry mint, and strawberry and mango sorbets.  Blueberry mint’s my favorite, but I went with the sorbet this time.

Barlata had paella again..

The akido institute was not serving food.

Scream Sorbet, who are opening their store “soon”.  (it’s all good, they’re still at the farmers markets)  I had a delicious citrus fennel sorbet.

Bakesale Betty.  I had their chicken pot pie and banana bread, but only ended up with a picture of coffee cups.  they are so damned nice.